Don’t Let It Dominate Your Life

Here’s the only deal you get:
• The coronavirus is coming and there is nothing you can do about it.
• You will be infected!
• When you are infected, you’re not going to receive any medicine or treatment of any kind by medical professionals – unless you begin to die! But by then it may be too late.

What would you do? You’re in your home “locked down” amongst other homes locked down. Through TV media sources, radio, and newspapers (worst of all, wild rumor), all you hear and read is the apocalypse. Some of your neighbors have already fallen. People you knew personally have died. Many others are in the hospital fighting for their lives. Meteoric death and infection rates dominate every headline.

There is no running and hiding. You cannot escape infection. If you attempt to leave your home seeking some form of social distancing – you’ll be shot!

What would you do?

This exact scenario is reality to roughly 2.2 million individuals in these here “United” States: residents of America’s sprawling prison industrial complex.

Faced with this grim fate, this is what I did:
• I switched up my exercise routine, focusing more on cardiovascular endurance.
• I started pumping my body full of Vitamins C, D and E. I took liquid garlic in gelatin capsules and double-dosed multivitamins daily.
• I curbed my sugar intake and cut all processed meats. I consumed nothing but salmon, tuna, mackerel, and sardines. I cut junk food like potato chips, replacing them with peanuts and almonds.
• I drank gallons of tea and stayed as hydrated as possible.
• I meditated, visually imagining my immune system, particularly my white blood cells, wielding medieval battle-axes in formidable shield wall formation, laying waste to the invading virus horde.
• …and I prayed!

I began this new routine in March, when Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared a state of emergency, banning all visitors and volunteers from the 100 or so prisons spread throughout the state.

Did it help? I really don’t know. My symptoms began September 9, 2020, amongst the largest single-test outbreak within the entire Texas prison system. Out of approximately 1,600 inmates warehoused at the Nathaniel J. Neal Unit, over 1,000 tested positive. Around 50 guards also tested positive. One died: Sergeant Parker, 73-years-old, who everyone called “Papa”. He was a good man! I have no information on any potential inmate deaths.

March, April, May, June, July, August: Six months’ worth of fear, worry, anxiety, and my coronavirus countermeasures. Six months of nothing but how scared you should be, how you should follow all COVID-19 preventative measures; alien concepts to the incarcerated! Six months’ worth of media focusing only on the “doomsday” scenario.

When it was my turn – when I was infected – I suffered none of the symptoms most commonly aired on the World News. I didn’t have a cough. I didn’t have a fever. I felt sore all over. A body-ache so acute it reminded me of “The Bends”: a decompression sickness scuba divers inflict upon themselves by ascending to the surface too quickly; their agony so intense their bodies bend until bones break. This lasted only a couple of hours.

My heart was COVID-19’s next siege-target. Without warning, my heart rate began to instantly accelerate as if I were sprinting. But I was stationary, laying down recovering from my “bends”. My heart beat so hard, so fast, it scared the shit out of me – literally! – for my next symptom was diarrhea the rest of the day.

I didn’t connect any of this sickness with coronavirus until my fourth symptom. When a group of men around me began to choke and gag as they fled in terror from someone’s flatulence. Of course, since I couldn’t smell or taste it, I didn’t react, and got the blame. I swear it wasn’t me! But I didn’t mind this symptom too much… Haha.

I walked to my cubicle and stuck my nose into a bag of coffee. I couldn’t smell it! With my finger, I placed some of the instant brew on my tongue. I couldn’t taste it!

“Holy shit!” I thought to myself. “I got the COVID!” And a slow, simmering panic began to rise from my psyche – but wait! I could breathe fine. I didn’t have a fever. I was on day two of my infection, loss of taste and smell realized a day after the COVID-“bends” and my heart “attack”. Why was I so scared?

Damn you, media.

By this time, everyone around me was sick. But medical would only take a cough and fever as symptoms of coronavirus. So we were left to stew, spreading COVID-19 far and wide.

Four days after the onset of my symptoms, I felt fully recovered. I don’t know how long this virus lingers in the body after recovery. But by September 23, 15-days after my first symptom, I tested negative in a unit-wide test, while most of those around me tested positive.

After those who tested positive were packed up and moved out, about 30% of my 119-man living-pod remained; all of us tested negative. We live in dorm, open-spaced, single-man cubicles. And all of a sudden it was quiet… I walked the wing checking who remained, who was sent to medical isolation.

I came across one man crying. He has served 41-years and is so close to going home, his fear of dying of COVID-19 inside this prison was/is palpable!

“Man!” He said through sobs, “I can’t deal with this no more!” He was crying like I did, and many other veterans have, after surviving their first sustained, intense combat. He was shell-shocked, clear as day!

“Look, man,” I told him, “you’re a coronavirus survivor!” He looked at me like I was nuts. “You’ve already had it!” I continued. “Every one of us still in this wing, even though we tested negative, we’ve already been exposed and infected, and our bodies fought it off. You do not have to fear coronavirus any longer! You’ve survived 41-years in this shit-hole. You have survived COVID-19. And you’re going home to survive another 40-years!” He was still crying… but smiling!

Goddamn’d media!

In prison, you’re supposed to act “tough”. But those of us remaining (black, white, and brown) shook hands and hugged. Some wept openly… We were survivors!

“Don’t be afraid of COVID-19. Don’t let it dominate your life.” – President Trump.

All politics kicked aside, when I heard this Tweet over the radio, I understood! I smiled. If only we had heard these words six months ago…

And, for what it’s worth, my soul weeps for the more than 210,000 deaths here in America, and the many thousands more across our planet. I will continue to pray for these victims and their loved ones. But the fact remains, the vast majority of us infected with COVID-19 will survive with minor symptoms, if any symptoms at all. Wear your mask. Continue to social distance. Help where you can, when you can. Pray! Be responsible! But don’t allow COVID-19 to dominate your life – it’s way too short for that!

S.J. Watts, October 19, 2020: day 33 of our “protective” Covid-19 lockdown

S.J. Watts